1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a battery pack, and more particularly to an upgradable SMART battery pack which is capable of upgrading a SMART function thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is common that battery packs used in high-performance mobile electronic equipment, such as notebooks, personal portable terminals, camcorders, etc., have a SMART (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) function of performing a self-diagnosis operation by themselves and, if a problem is forecasted, reporting such a situation to an electronic device (referred to hereinafter as a “host”). Such battery packs with the SMART function are typically called SMART battery packs.
One such conventional battery pack with the SMART function comprises, as shown in FIG. 1, a battery array 100, a power terminal 300 appropriate to a host, and an electronic circuitry 200 for performing a battery protection function and SMART function. The electronic circuitry 200 includes a circuit for performing the battery protection function and a circuit for performing the SMART function, which circuits are composed of electronic components contained in a printed circuit board (PCB), typically called a battery control unit (BCU). That is, the electronic circuitry 200 includes a protection circuit 220 for protecting batteries, a microprocessor 210 for detecting current, voltage, temperature signals, etc. necessary to the operations of the batteries and operating the batteries on the basis of the detected signals, a nonvolatile memory 230 for storing a program necessary to the operation of the microprocessor 210 and unique information associated with the batteries, and a signal processor 240 for processing a signal for protection of the battery pack. The SMART battery pack with the above-mentioned construction is connected to the host via the power terminal 300 to supply power to the host and perform a SMART communication therewith.
The SMART battery pack as described above is manufactured by constructing a BCU circuitry, installing desired battery unique information and the program necessary to the operation of the microprocessor in the constructed BCU circuitry, performing a desired calibration operation with respect to the resulting BCU circuitry, attaching battery cells to the resulting BCU circuitry, and performing a packaging procedure of enclosing the resulting BCU circuitry with a plastic case and carrying out a finishing process with respect to the resulting structure using adhesives or in an ultrasonic welding manner.
Various functions of the conventional SMART battery pack must be upgraded when equipment of the host being in use is upgraded or for application of the same batteries to a different type of host. However, it is impossible to upgrade the various functions of the conventional SMART battery pack without disassembling the battery pack.